Popovich lawsuit is good

I don’t like “frivolous” lawsuits, but this one involving the San Antonio Spurs has a point: Don’t knowingly devalue the product you promote.

Miami lawyer Larry McGuinness filed a class-action suit this week, claiming Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich sent his best players home to rest, rather than playing them against the Heat on Nov. 29, thus causing economic damage.

AP Photo

Fans pay premium prices to see premium teams, but Popovich sent Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green home for a rest. The fans didn’t get what they paid for, and it was a willful act on Popovich’s part.

Injuries, illness and even suspensions are one thing, sending healthy and team-oriented players home is another.

The reason ticket prices are so high for NBA games is that the players are the best in the world. But when you take away the stars, the remainder are just good players. I wouldn’t want to pay several hundred dollars for a good seat to see that. It not only insults the fans but it could devalue the product. If fans start wondering whether they’ll actually see the people they paid to watch, ticket sales will suffer.

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Brad Rock

5 comments

DAVID MORRILL

I agree with Rock. Not one for law Suits normally, but in this case those paying fans were not given the product they paid for. It would be nice if all those ticket holders that paid were given the $ that my be awarded, but that won’t happen.

I have to say I totally disagree with this. It’s just part of the game. The big issue with this lawyer’s case is that he bought the tickets off of a 3rd party (scalper or a website like stubhub, I don’t know for sure) and not from the NBA. I agree he probably feels he overpaid, and he probably did, but for the Spurs or any other team to reimburse this man for tickets the NBA didn’t profit from isn’t their job.

Should the Spurs do a better job submitting their list of people not playing? Yes. Should people who bought tickets from the NBA/Heat for the game feel cheated? Yes. Should the Spurs pay this man when he uses a 3rd party to get his tickets? No. There’s a risk we all take buying from 3rd party’s and this man unfortunately got burned.

Here’s where I don’t like this. Teams could do this to purposely freeze a team out of the playoffs. And cost others teams big money. Let’s say the Lakers get it together and are in a tie for 8th place with Houston. San Antonio is in 1st place and plays Houston on the last game of the season. They probably would not want to play a surging Lakers team in the first round so they “throw” the game with Houston by sitting their players so that Houston finishes 8th and the Lakers 9th. You tell me how this is not fraud. Tell me the Lakers (which I hate by the way and would love to see them lose out) are not harmed by this move. The cost is enormous to LA, not to mention the damage to the league’s reputation of true competition. How is throwing a game in December any different? The fans are being cheated and the league suffers a loss of credibility. A long season, wear and tear, injuries, and age, are all part of the game. You play with what you are given. I feel the league needs to address this to restore some confidence back to the game, which has many issues as well. How they do that? I have no clue. I hated it when SA tanked to get Duncan, I don’t like it when coaches send players home for no reason other than to rest. How do you spell it any other way but cheating?

A ticket is a contract. Is there anywhere on the ticket guaranteeing the appearance on any particular player? The only thing it says on the ticket is the Spurs. The management decides who the spurs consist of. That is a totally well understood and explicit part of their job. It’s a ridiculous lawsuit. Stern’s fine was ridiculous.

If you want to leave the legal realm and just talk about “shoulds,” as in, “the fans pay a lot of money they should get to see the stars” then maybe you should start covering wrestling, or the circus, or some other non-sporting spectacle based on fans seeing stars. I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in sports, which is only about trying to win championships within the particular rules of the game.

“The reason ticket prices are so high for NBA games is that the players are the best in the world.” No, the reason that ticket prices are so high for NBA games is because there are only 19K seats per game and only 42 (home) games per season so people will pay for higher prices for limited supply. To say that a Bobcats/Suns game is “best in the world is a flat out lie, but people still pay to go to those games too. People play for tons of things that are not “best in the world” level all the time. And specifically to the game in question, the Spurs almost WON without the big three (4) so the talent basis for this suit again, makes it frivolous.